Manchester Airport, the global gateway to and from Northern England, launches a ‘Fly Manchester’ campaign today to win back the four million passengers from its catchment area that currently travel by road/ rail to London airports when routes operate a short distance away in Manchester.

Manchester Airport's catchment area is home to 22 million people and its extensive ground transport infrastructure and on-site rail, bus and coach interchange means 60% of all UK businesses are within a two-hour drive of the airport. However Manchester Airport currently loses around 4 million passenger journeys to London airports every year, despite having a long haul network that includes services to global destinations such as New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Islamabad and Lahore. Furthermore, services from Manchester Airport to world class hubs such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Singapore open up access to an additional 50 destinations in Asia, China, India and Australasia.

Ken O’Toole, Chief Commercial Officer for MAG, owners of Manchester Airport, said: “We have an unrivalled network of services – and our range continues to grow with Moscow, Cairo, Thessaloniki, Krakow, Trapani and Stavanger boosting the options for summer 2013. Manchester’s route network is bigger than Heathrow’s – with over 200 destinations on offer here, versus around 180 from Heathrow.

“The Fly Manchester campaign recognises it is absurd that people from the North should fly from London when they could do so from Manchester, much closer to where they live. By encouraging passengers to use Manchester Airport we will also relieve some of the capacity constraints of the congested London airports system, supporting Government who wish to maximise use of existing UK airport capacity."

Manchester’s long haul catchment area extends north through the Lake District into Scotland; east across Yorkshire and the North East; south to Birmingham and the Midlands; and west into Merseyside and Wales. Today’s launch will be the start of a year long campaign and will seek to remind customers and stakeholders of the importance of regional hubs in alleviating congestion. An advertising campaign will be seen from today in key target areas in the North.

ENDS

Notes to editors∑ CAA survey data was used to identify Manchester Airport’s penetration in various surrounding counties.∑ Manchester Airport is the global gateway for the North of the UK and the largest airport outside London with over 200 destinations served by 65 airlines.∑ Manchester Airport is part of MAG, the UK’s second largest airport operator, serving 24 million passengers every year through its ownership and operation of Manchester, East Midlands and Bournemouth airports. MAG’s three airports and property business contribute more than £3bn to the UK economy and support over 86,000 jobs.∑ Manchester Airport has a strategic ambition to host more direct services to the Far East and statistics released at the end of 2012 detailed large amounts of passenger leakage with passengers starting their journeys in the North and heading to Asia and beyond.122,000 were heading to Hong Kong, 87,000 to Bangkok, 70,000 to Mumbai and 65,000 to Delhi. These numbers of passengers would support direct long haul services from Manchester and all of these destinations are strategic targets of the airport in the medium term.